Tag: quarantine tunes volume 7

New Quarantine Tune

I mixed a song for The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, aka Quarantine Tunes (Volume Seven). I should really wait until tomorrow to share it anywhere because I am so freakin’ tired that I can’t tell if this sounds anywhere near decent or not.

I actually finished recording this song in June of 2022. Coming up on two years ago. Why did I wait so long to mix it? Because I fear that I actually freakin’ love this song. The chorus just slaps. Well, at least to my ears it does. The rest of the song is okay, but the chorus just makes me want to bang my head and scream. It is very rare for me to feel that way about one of my own songs. So rare that when it happens, the idea of screwing up a mix really scares the shit out of the tiny little creative portion of my tiny little brain.

I don’t want to screw up a good song, dig?

Anyway, here’s the good song that I probably screwed up. I’ll listen to it tomorrow after I’ve slept and see if I still find the mix acceptable. I doubt I will, and if I don’t then I’ll remix it.

Anyone Else Play Guitar Today?

Hey everyone, raise your hand if you were able to sneak some guitar playing in before work this morning.

Robert timidly raises his hand.

Yup, I recorded lead parts for two songs. I now officially have no songs in progress that are currently ready for any guitar tracks. I have to do some MIDI work tonight, and maybe some car vocals in the morning, and then I’ll have some stuff ready to work on.

The Great Guitar Pick Journey of 2024 continues as well. I tried another new one today. Much of my internet research pointed to Dunlop as the brand to go with. I tried Max Grip first (1.14mm) and those were okay, but no as good as the Fender picks I’d been using for ages. They have little grippy things on them that are supposed to keep them from spinning around between your fingers as you play, and that worked but it felt awkward. I am sure I could get used to it but I moved on to option two this morning (for now at least). 

Option two is Dunlop Tortex Jazz III. This one was much better than the Max Grip in all ways but one. The little guy is just tiny. I kept going into muscle memory mode and literally missed the strings. It’s just small. It feels really good in my hand, and the overwhelming majority of suggestions I’ve received in my online questioning said to try them. I’ll stick with it for a while, but I am wondering if they make the same pick only bigger. 

I have two other options that I want to try before I start looking outside of Dunlop, but I haven’t bought either of them yet. One of them is pretty expensive for a pic. We’ll see.

Anyway, here are the obligatory pictures from this morning’s lead guitar playing extravaganza.

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Dig those shiny new frets
Two amps… I ran them both direct out though. No speakers. Sadface.

Car Music: 2024

Was today the first car music of 2024? I think so. 

I snuck out of the house a few minutes after 7:30, got to the movie theater parking lot (which wasn’t quite as empty as I like it to be) by 7:40 and recorded vocals for two songs until 8:25. I didn’t have time for any more, and even if I did I might not have. It was a struggle today. My voice was very scratchy and I’m not terribly pleased with the results… then again I am never pleased with the results so what difference does it make?

The upside is I now have two songs that are ready for lead guitars. The downside is that I have no calluses on the fingers on my left hand so recording lead guitars is going to hurt a bit. I can hack it though. I’m practically a pro at this… not really… whatever.

Here’s the view of my “studio” today:

There was a truck parked right next to my usual spot so I had to move over a few rows.

In closing, here is the obligatory clock picture:

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Officially On a Streak

When I finished playing guitar yesterday morning I had run out of tracks that needed to be recorded. Last night I started another re-recording song so that I could have something to work on today. Now here we are again with nothing ready to work on because for the third day in a row I played guitar!

I now have six quarantine tunes ready for vocals. That’s what I call a backlog. It’s going to take me a while to get through all of that. I have one more song on my list for this round of re-recordings. I had two but I decided to drop one of them. If I can prep that one with bass and drum MIDI tracks today then I’ll have something to do tomorrow morning. Then we start doing car music on Tuesday? We’ll see how it shakes out.

Obligatory guitar pics, via Hipstamatic shake-to-shuffle….

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Pre-Work Day Guitar Playing

I recorded some guitar tracks today! WOOHOO!

I put rhythm guitars on one Quarantine Tunes vol. Seven song. Lots of chunky wah-wah groove. Awesome. Here’s hoping I get to make some time to play a lot this weekend. I have a lot of stuff ready for car vocals too.

Get to work, Robert!

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Make Music

I have barely done anything musical in the past week. I told myself I was going to work on Quarantine Tunes Volume 7 this month, and I have done some work. I just haven’t done enough. 

I have one song ready to mix, but it’s been ready to mix for about a year. I have one song ready for lead guitars but, again, it’s been ready for about a year. I have three songs ready for vocals and I have been trying to get myself into a place where I can record them (meaning in the car in an empty parking lot at the crack of dawn) but I’ve failed to get it done all week. Tomorrow, maybe? I also have two songs ready for rhythm guitars but I just haven’t been able to make the time to record the tracks. I will, I just need to get myself motivated.

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Motivation! Why do you vex me so? Get your ass in gear, Robert! Do something! Play the effin’ guitar, you bozo! Make some music!

Volume Seven Lives!

Quarantine Tunes was going to end at volume six, but here we are with the first song from volume seven! It’s like when Kiss goes on a farewell tour and then a year later goes on a comeback tour! WOOHOO

This is my favorite song from February’s RPM Challenge. It’s a little faster, has a couple of new sections, some really awful lead guitar playing, and everything is tuned down a half step.

Volume seven lives!